LANDMARK AchieveMENTS

ROAdLESS AREAS INVENTORY METHOD

Wild Utah Project engaged in the development of a citizen-powered field assessment tool for determining which Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands qualify for Wilderness. The Citizens' BLM Roadless Inventory was realized through the digitization of the proposal with our GIS efforts, resulting in today's 9.8 million acre Red Rock Wilderness proposal in Congress, as described in Wilderness at the Edge, authored by our founder Jim Catlin.

Riparian-Stream Rapid Assessment RSRA: An ecologically-based stream health assessment method to identify priority stream reaches for protection and restoration was published in 2007. This protocol is now being used in many western states by various government agencies, municipalities universities and conservation groups. RSRA database access coming soon...

Best Management Practices (BMPs) for siting, developing, operating, and monitoring renewable energy in the Intermountain West was published in 2012 and adopted by agency officials and others. These BMPs are helping many conservation partners influence energy development strategies to to avoid negative implications for habitat fragmentation and wildlife communities on the Utah landscape.

The Heart of the West Wildlands Network Conservation Plan was designed in collaboration with our partners in the Heart of the West Coalition, including Wildlands Network. Members of the coalition are now working to implement this proposed set of wildlife core areas and linkages on the ground in the Utah-Wyoming Mountain Ecoregion and Wyoming Basins Ecoregion (the 'northern 4 corners' area of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado)

The Off-Road Vehicle Monitoring and Management Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Forestlands document was developed in 2008. The BMPs were adopted in a draft version of the US Forest Service new National OHV Monitoring Framework, and are helping our conservation partners advocate for landscape data-driven Travel Plan revisions.

The 2007 Lynx Least-Cost Path analysis and report includes a model which describes probable Canada lynx movement corridors and the identification of potential lynx habitat to protect between the southern and northern Rocky Mountains. Our partner The Nature Conservancy has been using it to protect important areas of lynx habitat in Northern Utah.

By documenting grazing management and collecting detailed data on grazing utilization on select allotments over many years, we have created the basis for an Interior Board of Land Appeals case which could ultimately positively affect grazing management on millions of acres across the West. We expect that the initial favorable decision by a Dept of Interior Administrative Law Judge will hold up on appeal in federal district court, this year.